ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Internal Family Systems (IFS) work with children began with Bart. It also discusses how children could use drawing and Lego and clay to externalize parts. Bart wanted to find out if an exile of his was ready to give up some pain. 'Mad' lived in Bart's stomach and helped him by making him feel his feelings. Unfortunately, 'Mad' was constantly under attack by other parts that didn't want Bart to feel. Working with one's own parts is essential to being an IFS therapist. We are humans, and therapy is a relationship between people. It is critically important as a therapist to be aware of the feelings that get provoked and evoked with clients and to even use those reactions in the service of the therapy. The chapter explains learning how child parts could enter into the therapy and also learns to work with them in sessions.
